Sort of Almost Not Really the End of the World
by Scarabbug
Summary: She thinks maybe the world just ended... One shot.


**A line in this fic was gacked from an issue of the DC comic **_**Impulse**_**, though I'm not certain which one. Which line will be explained at the bottom. Standard disclaimers apply. Reviews and concrit appreciated.

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Sort of Almost Not Really the End of the World.

She thinks…

She thinks maybe the world just ended.

She's on her back. Or maybe on her side. It depends on which way up the world is right now. It's dark and weirdly warm all around her, and the dust is going down her nose and _really_ hurting.

Seriously, utterly, _properly_ ended. Not just the almost-but-not-quite type of disaster she's used to experiencing whenever she goes anywhere with Yuugi (she considers it a sacrifice of love personally, and one she's always been quite willing to bear, but… seriously. The world just _ended_. She felt it coming down all around her. She's pretty sure she has the bruises to prove it.)

_'Reb…cca?'_

…What is that?

_'R…beca Hop…ins!'_

…Oh, god, she hopes that's not a ghost. Not the ghost, the one they send along to take people on their merry way after they kick the can.

Rebecca tries to move, but all that does is shift the dust about and make things above her start to creak like they're about to fall in on her. She stops and lies as still as a stone, not wanting to disrupt anything into falling. She wishes she had some idea where she was. It's too dark for her to make out anything. She vaguely entertains the thought that she, Rebecca Hopkins, ten year old genius and duel monsters champion, might just be about to head up to that old duelling arena in the sky.

Oh, _crud_, she's not ready for that yet!

She's been a good person, hasn't she? And she's been brave and loving and kind, right? And she's always tried to do the right thing and play fair and right and okay, so she was wrong about duel monsters to start with but she _learned_, just like the heroes and heroines in Leon's story books. You can't know these things are important without having something to teach you first, come _on_ already, isn't that what all those stupid fairytales are about?

She _learned_. Not just the kind of things you find out from books and card games, but the really important stuff about people and duel monsters and how to play fair. But there's still lots more she wanted to learn, lots of stuff she hasn't done. She still has to get Yuugi to take her to that nice theme park in her home town. She still has to graduate from high school before she turns twelve. Still has to beat him in a game of duel monsters. Still has to…

She doesn't want to die. Dying really _hurts_ and it's scary and…

_'Rebecca?' _

…She wants to tell it to go away, but can't, because her throat has gotten kind of tense and hoarse from the dust. It's not that she's really scared or anything it's just….

'Rebecca!'

Just…

'Rebecca you alright, kid? C'mon, we know you're in there!'

Rebecca blinks, and the dust hurts her eyes some more but she doesn't care, because he last time she checked, the spirit of death didn't have a hard-edged Japanese accent like that.

'Oh, wait, that's not the spirit of the afterlife, it's just Joey Wheeler… wait, hold on a sec, that's—!'

And then the darkness over her head _lifts. _

It's not Yuugi looking down at her, but the eyes are still warm and kind and relieved and definitely not a ghost's eyes, so that's alright.

'…Grandpa?'

He doesn't answer her. Instead, he just says 'Oh, thank god!' and scoops her up out of the rubble (which she can now make out as the ruins of a crumpled old ruin that grandpa and his team had been busy excavating) the way he used to when she was only little.

And she's starting to remember now, about that funny game they found in the ruins in central Africa, and about Yugi and everyone else coming over here because they thought it might be some kind of creepy shadow game. And then she ran down here inside the temple in the dark, and the walls had started shaking and…

Okay, so maybe the world _hasn't_ ended, but it had certainly _felt_ like it at the time. It's not like she overreacted or anything, and her face and knees still really hurt, so she doesn't complain when Grandpa decides he'd rather carry her out of the rubble like some kid, instead of letting her walk. Actually, he doesn't seem willing to let go of her, not even for a second. Which should be embarrassing, but it's not. Heck, she's just been through a severe trauma here! She _deserves_ a little attention.

'See that kid's got nine lives, or something!' That voice belonged to Jounouchi again and is filled with the same kind of wonder he usually only reserves for when his opponent is pulling a super-rare-killer-monster-card-and-magic combo on him.

'Well hanging out with us she'd have to.'

'Seriously, Anzu, she _does_. The whole freakin' building just came down and look ,she's about ready to start yapping at us again!'

Hey, who does the _yapping_ around here, Jounouchi?

'One of us better go get Yuugi.'

'Sure, sure, one of us should.'

'That means _you_ Jounouchi-kun.'

'Oh… Yeah. Sure. Yeah. Going now.'

Oh. So Yuugi isn't here yet. Well, that explains why he wasn't here helping her out of all that dirt, then. And it's not she was really in trouble, so she figures she'll forgive him for it.

'That's the Hopkins blood in her,' There is a smile in Grandpa's voice, and he doesn't sound so worried anymore. 'You were made for temples and tough climates; the dirt is no patch on you, my dear.'

She wants to tell grandpa that she'd really rather never go back in it (and tell him that her knees hurt while she's at it… she's fairly sure she saw blood down there), but her throat's still kind of hoarse, so she doesn't. And when he tries to move away, she doesn't really _mean_ to reach out and snatch his hand back, but she does anyway, and so he stays close by.

Hugs aren't so childish really. Anzu gets them all the time and Yuugi would probably hug her too, if he was here, but he's not so… yeah.

She's _not_ crying. She's just sniffling a little. Rebecca Hopkins has been strong and Rebecca Hopkins has been brave.

But she's fairly sure her darling would agree that "grandpa" means its okay to cry anyway.

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**The last line is the gacked one. The only changes in the actual comic was that "grandpa" was "grandma" and the character perspective was a "he".**


End file.
